Day 2/3 of symptoms and feel so unwell - can anyone handhold?

[LeFluffyPants]

Hello,

I’m sorry for another 89 millionth covid thread. I’m on either day 2 or 3 since first symptoms started, after I was in close contact with a confirmed positive a few days earlier. I am feeling really scared.

I feel really grim. Nausea, dizziness, shaky, temperature, chills. Can’t really move from bed.

Anyone else early in the illness right now want to connect or hand hold? Or is there perhaps anyone a bit further on who could share a bit about their progression of symptoms?

This just feels really scary as I can’t imagine how much worse it will get.

For context, I’m 38, female, no known conditions, not obese. But definitely still got a few “baby” (does that count when they’re 2 and 4?!) extra pounds hanging around. And I used to like the odd cigarette...

Have some and an un-mumsnetty (socially distanced of course!) hug. My mum got a positve test just over a week ago. She first felt ill on the Tuesday, coughing on the Wednesday, booked a test for Friday (which was the first day she felt really ill). So I guess she felt really ill for about 3 days, then last Monday started to get slightly better everyday. She still coughing a bit now, and really achey (but she has a pain condition so she's always achey. Her isolation ended on Saturday and she spent all of yesterday (bar two hours) "up" - albeit mostly on the sofa. She's in her early 50s and diabetic, so I was really worried, but I'm amazed at how quickly she's recovering. She says those first few days were the illest she's ever felt.

Fingers crossed you start feeling better soon!

Sorry you feel so unwell :-(
I haven’t had it but my best friend and her husband tested positive last month and they both felt really awful and bed ridden for a week. After that they felt run down and very tired but could function more normally. 3 weeks later and they feel normal again apart from a lingering tiredness. Good luck x

@LeFluffyPants try not to worry and text as much as you can. I tested positive mid Nov and felt very unwell too for about 10 days. I'm 54, few pounds overweight and a few health conditions. Plus I was on my own and petrified.
In the end it turned out fine and I worried too much, no hospitalisation and no real breathing problems. Not nice but you'll get through it.
Take care, rest, stay hydrated and take painkillers x

Ah @GetTheGoodLookingGuy thank you so so much for your reply - and for the unMumsnetty hugs, I do love one of those!

So reassuring to hear that about your mum and I’m so pleased she’s feeling so much better, especially with her conditions - such a relief!

For some reason I had it in my head that it gets worse and worse before getting better but I wonder if that’s not always the case for everyone - some of us might just feel really bad early on and then gradually better, it seems. I hope so, anyway!

Thanks again

My husband and I had it. Was like the flu, we could barely get out of bed. Rest, rest and more rest and fluids. Painkillers. If you have trouble breathing then call 111. Hope you feel better soon.

@IndieTara thank you so much, that’s so reassuring to hear. I’m so so pleased it turned out fine for you, and yes I can only imagine how scary it must have felt

I sort of wonder if I’m making it feel worse by worrying so much, but it’s difficult to stay calm when we keep hearing awful stories of people getting really unwell, hospital, etc etc!

So brilliant that you’re over it now. Xx

Hope you feel better soon.
On the positive side you sound like you're in very good shape to get over this very well. With a little bit of luck you might be feeling a bit better for Christmas.

@Caramel81 thank you so much for your reply, that’s super helpful - sorry to hear they felt so poorly but brilliant they’re over it now.

I can’t remember ever having flu before, or not for about 20 years, but I imagine it’s a bit like this, with the temperature and chills and everything. I was expecting to have more of the cough etc but no sign yet, it’s probably coming soon....! X

@ButterflyBitch really appreciate your message, thanks. So sorry you both had it and felt rubbish but brilliant that you have both recovered.

If you don’t mind me asking, do you remember roughly how long you were unwell for? And did you get the typical cough etc too or not? I’m finding it so weird that I feel so poorly but no sign of the cough or loss of smell or taste yet. But it’s early still I guess x

@Kendodd thank you for such a hopeful reassuring reply! I do hope you’re right. X

We both had the exact same symptoms. Started off with headache, sore throat and aches. Cough started a day or so later but it was never that bad. We both felt totally wiped out. Weirdly our backs and legs hurt too? Like we’d pulled muscles except we hadn’t and on day 5 my husband lost his sense of taste. Lasted about a week and a half and the fatigue for a few days after that. Both fully recovered now.
My kids also had it and a headache, sore throat and fatigue were my sons symptoms (for a whole 2 days!) and my daughter was asymptomatic.
You will more than likely be absolutely fine even though you feel like shit now. Just keep an eye on your breathing or if you feel really really unwell then call for help. And don’t do too much even when you’re feeling better, just rest as much as poss.

OP, you have to put your phone down. Literally turn it off. Watch something comforting like friends, focus to 12pm, then 8pm and so on. Sleep, eat small meals, drink plenty. You cannot know how it will go but the chances are you will be ok. Worrying and posting will not help, you just have to ride it out and rest. If you get breathless, call 111 but also open a window, or lie on your front. Worrying will only make this harder so just distract yourself. It is out of your hands now and in the hands of your body!! Which will likely be absolutely fine.
I mean all of this with love as I have been there and I know exactly what you are going through!! The Covid is shit but the anxiety is worse get well soon!

Bless you op. I have friends who for 2/3 days felt 'the illest they've ever been' (they've never been seriously ill tbf) but then started recovering
Their biggest concern throughout was looking after their kids (both parents were ill) but they somehow got through it without having to rely on relatives. I think there was basically unlimited screen time.

Fingers crossed you'll be over the worst before christmas x

@LeFluffyPants I didn't get the cough or lose my taste or smell

My friend who had it also didn’t get a cough or lose taste or smell. Her symptoms were feeling fluey/achey with a temp, headache and exhausted. She said they had the hearing on high but were both constantly shivering even under the duvet

For most of us the biggest battle isn't with the virus it is with the anxiety it causes. In the vast majority this is a mild illness followed by recovery, the problem is anxiety wants an absolute and so it says 'but what if I am the minority' and the keeps on nagging and nagging at you.

Distraction, distraction, distraction is key. Get off here, get off social media, get off the news. Read if you can, watch happy films or TV programs. Be always prepared to tell your own mind to fuck off.

@Frazzled2207 thank you for your message! Yes that’s so tricky having to look after little ones too - mine are 2 and 4 🙈 thankfully my husband is completely fine - either asymptomatic or immune as he was in way more contact with the positive person than me - so he’s on childcare duty while I rest.

Really appreciate your reassuring messages all xx

@Emeeno1 and @SandysMam I think you’ve both completely hit the nail on the head.

Right now I feel like I can cope with how ill I feel - it’s actually nowhere near as bad as my pregnancy sickness for example - but what is way way worse is the panic and anxiety about what will come. You’re so right that anxiety needs that absolute end, it’s not knowing that is so intolerable to anxiety.

And yes you’re so right about getting off here and distracting myself. I’m going to go and find some suitably gripping series to watch from bed.

Thank you again x

Emeeno

Spot on. The awful anxiety!
I am using Netflix to keep occupied!

@ButterflyBitch we had achy backs and legs in this house with it too, and shooting pains in the back of the thigh and buttock. Thought it was just us, haven't heard anyone else who's had it say it before

@PandemicPavolova - great name by the way - are you unwell with covid at the moment as well?

It really is the anxiety that is making this so much worse. X

No, but I think I had it in march, lost sense of smell ect, had extreme tickling, burning in nose, gastric symptoms, and it was the waiting... For it to get worse...

But dc have colds now, and dh wasn't well last night, and I think I can feel something coming on! Paranoid.....

In March, nothing progressed... I was fine!

I’ve had flu many times OP and at times have definitely felt like I am dying! Feeling grim doesn’t mean that you will get worse and worse, hopefully it’s now peaked and you will start feeling better soon. When they say ‘mild’ I think that can still mean you feel horrendous, but your body is in good shape to fight it xx

[quote eandz13]@ButterflyBitch we had achy backs and legs in this house with it too, and shooting pains in the back of the thigh and buttock. Thought it was just us, haven't heard anyone else who's had it say it before [/quote]
It was weird. Couldn’t work out whether I’d laid funny (from being in bed so much) or not.